The Aspen Security Forum featured a long, sad dirge on Iraq by Gen. Odierno

General Ray Odierno lives in the third person regarding Iraq. “Mistakes were made” for sure, but not by him, even when he was in charge. Somehow the mistakes happened temporally on his watch, but by someone, never named. Certainly not by General Ray Odierno.

Continuing a media-led open sucking chest wound process of giving a platform to those who were responsible for the current disaster in Iraq to explain anew to us what happened in Iraq (short version: they didn’t do it), the Aspen Security Forum featured a long, sad dirge by Odierno on Iraq.

One could presume Odierno knows something about Iraq; he spent a lot of time there in key positions of responsibility and built up quite a resume: From October 2001 to June 2004, General Odierno commanded the 4th Infantry Division, leading the division in combat. He was Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps in during the famous Surge that was fantasized as ending the war. Odierno was also Commander of United States Joint Forces Command, meaning he was in charge of every American service member in the country. It was during this time that Odierno had personal responsibility for implementing General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency doctrine, overseeing the 2010 Iraqi elections that gave Prime Minister Maliki his second term, and working hand-in-hand with the American embassy in Baghdad to ensure the training of the Iraqi police and army before the U.S. retreat from Iraq at the end of 2010. Odierno is currently Chief of Staff of the Army. Tragically, Odierno’s son, an Army captain, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Baghdad in August 2004 and lost his left arm.

So it is with some sad amusement (think slowing down to gawk at a car wreck on the side of the road) to read Odierno’s comments from the Aspen Security Forum. The general was led through his comments by David Sanger of The New York Times. Sanger himself in 2003 was part of the Times’ wholesale acceptance of the Bush White House’s falsehoods on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so the two make quite a pair.

– “The country was going in the right direction when the United States left in 2011, but Iraqi leaders overestimated the progress made by their military and government institutions.”

– “The problem in Iraq was not the training of the Iraqi security forces, although their ability to sustain their own training was ‘disappointing.’ The problem was a lack of confidence, trust and loyalty between troops and their leaders because of politicization of Iraq’s military leadership.”

– “Leaders were changed out. Many of them weren’t qualified. There was some sectarian nature to the changes that were made. Members of the Iraqi security forces were unwilling to fight for a government that they perceived as not standing up for all the different peoples of Iraq, so when they were challenged, you saw them very quickly fade away.”

– “But military power isn’t enough to solve the problems in Iraq, or elsewhere in the Middle East for that matter. The lesson here is [that] you’ve got to stand up an institution. And that includes not just a military, but also a functioning government. Iraq will continue to disintegrate if the unity government doesn’t re-form… The good thing about this is they are in the process of forming a new government. They just had an election. The hope is that the government that would come out would be one that clearly supports a unity government as we go forward. Will that solve the problem?” My guess is not completely. But that’s the first step.”

Odierno has rehearsed his lines– from 2010. Here’s what he claimed after the 2010 elections in Iraq: “”Iraqi security forces performed superbly… I think it was very much a success for the Iraqi people yesterday.” He said earlier that same year “Iraq presents a solid opportunity to help in stabilizing the Middle East.” The Washington Post, never a stranger to hagiography, said on Odierno’s departure from Iraq: “He leaves behind a war not yet won, not yet lost and not yet over. The gap has narrowed in one notable way: Iraq’s security forces, trained, equipped and to a large extent designed by the U.S. military, are increasingly professional and competent.”

The very factors Odierno speaks today of almost as if he was an independent third party dispassionately looking back are the same ones he was responsible for resolving over his many years of command in Iraq. Odierno watched as the United States poured $25 billion into training the gleefully third world standard Iraqi Army he now says was not properly trained. He was handmaiden to the 2010 elections that saw the Iranians broker a Maliki victory and the installation of a Shia-based non-representative government. He oversaw the military reconstruction efforts over years of the Occupation that failed (alongside the State Department’s efforts) to create the very institutions whose absence he now decries. Despite all this, the best Odierno can come up with as an explanation for why everything is a mess in 2014 is the Iraqi’s messed up his good work.

But if Maliki is anything more than a talisman for the whole mess of post-2003 Iraq, he was certainly America’s choice (twice) for the role, and it is unfair to simply fob current events off on him, or assume things will turn around when he is sent off-stage like a modern day Ngo Dinh Diem. Same for “the Iraqis,” whoever they are in this context, who have been designated as a group the responsible party for failing to reassemble the broken country the U.S. created, uninvited, and then left for them.

Odierno is far from alone in absolving himself of responsibility for all the good he failed to do. The big difference is that Odierno likely knows better.

While in Iraq, I met Odierno several times. He traveled tirelessly and spoke to everyone. Addressing small groups of his field officers, the general was often more considered in his remarks, and more aware of the nuanced ground truth, than in his photo-op statements. Yet for all his McNamara of 1965-like public optimism during the war, Odierno does not now seem able to rise to the McNamara of 1995 in admitting his shortcomings, and those of his war. In not doing so– as McNamara did when he remained silent over Vietnam for so long– he blocks the lessons of the past from informing the present. Odierno, like all of Washington vis-à-vis Iraq, seems to believe he is exempt from history.

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Peter Van Buren writes about current events at blog. His book,Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent, is available now from Amazon.

My Dad said when Congress did not want to give Japan food, cash and money to rebuild Japan General MacArthur then asked Congress for another 10 divisions. Why Congress asked to deal with the food riots and all the unemployed people. ( Please note I am paraphrasing )
If instead of trying to save costs by outsourcing we gave Iraqi’s the job of rebuilding their country we would not have had to do so much fighting.
Mayor Daley ( another Dad quote) every city job gives you the vote of their wives, both sets of inlays, their brothers and sisters plus their kids. Instead of spending millions? billions ? bribing Iraqi leaders we used the money to create better paying jobs than Saddam did we would have saved trillions on the war and rebuilding of Iraq.

At some point no matter the temptation we must admit we are a polarizing force that our mere presence makes Iraq’s reach for their guns and that other countries should do the job but not us.
Even if no other country wants to do the job we must admit to ourselves after 10+ years we only make things worse!

For America maybe but Iraq only if we don’t send in any Americans to do the job we can just write the checks. Imagine how much the price of oil would drop if all Iraq’s power came from the sun instead of oil.

Do we ask the losing time why they think they lost? yes
Do we believe the losing team when they claim they did not make any mistakes and instead they want to double down on what did not work the first time? The General Westmoreland through Odierno public relations strategy? Sadly Yes
How many wars do we have to lose before we change how and why we fight wars and go back to what worked in WW2 overwhelming force to win the fight followed by plans to rebuild the country better than it was before.

Hate to keep bringing up my narcissist rant but it is a feature that they cannot be wrong. Third person references, rationalization, and blaming others (esp. subordinates) is a feature of the disorder.

Why do you hate to bring that up I think its an important point to make and explains in part why we keep making mistakes about wars. The other part is money the Military/industrial parasite would kill the host body our economy if it meant they got a big meal. Parasites never think about tomorrows meal.
I think a few examples of Third person references, rationalization, and blaming others (esp. subordinates) over the years would make a great retrospective diary. For those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it…in summer school.

Things; I think our military does not want to go back into Iraq. And, this morning it looks like the Sunni tribes in Anbar are gearing up to confront Isis…with what success, remains to be seen.

The key thing with Al-Abadi, of course, is what kind of deals he will cut with the Sunnis, to increase their influence in the government, particularly, with the military and the police. I was surprised at how quickly Sadr and the Iranians got on board with his becoming PM.

I’m also wondering if he can, or will try, to reverse the Kurdish takeover of Kirkuk. How will he deal with the Kurds selling “Iraqi” oil out the back door? You’d think that the Kurdish gains, courtesy of Isis, are now well enough in place that they are a done deal. Especially now that U.S. corporate interests are present and accounted for in Irbil and other parts of the Kurdish Region.

The pieces for Abadi to be shoehorned in, fell into place rather nicely, but I’m thinking the devil is going to be in the details.

Best news all day I hope you are right and I’m wrong. The new Iraqi PM did get Iranian support quick and now you say the Sunni tribes are gearing up to go against ISIS? That is interesting but why are the Shia not gearing up to fight ISIS?

To me ridding politics of narcissists (who are attracted to politics) is mission critical to achieving a real functional democracy. I am positive humans have a fairness gene and if people with personality disorders like narcissism were prevented from holding office the 99% would benefit greatly.

Right now, I think the situation is dictated by geography. Isis has a strong presence in Anbar, where many Sunnis welcomed them because they were chasing the Government forces out. But, their fighters are, generally about 60 miles from Baghdad…capable of car-bombings and hit-and-run attacks, but they just don’t have the numbers or the power to threaten the capital. (I don’t think they’re going to get them, either. Too many Shiites.)

The question is, are they strong enough to create a stalemate. If the Sunnis come back at them, and close the border with Syria to them, I think the answer is no. They gained support from momentum and from the collapse of the government forces, mainly Shiite. I think the easy pickin’s are over for them. Given their fanatcism and their atrocities, if Abadi’s insertion as PM works to undercut their local support in the north and west of Iraq, then I think the change will be a good thing, and he may have an extended “honeymoon”.

Read the book the “Psychopath Whisperer ” or just skip to the back they are making great strides treating psychopaths of course of Walker of Wisconsin has cut funds for the program…probably because he is worried about people wanting to treat him. I can’t think of a single psychopath who is not also a Narcissists. Maybe some parts of the treatment would help them.

It seems like they are in trouble my guess is the CIA will arrange for ISIS to retreat into Syria otherwise the Iraqi’s will ask them where they got their money, weapons etc and those answers would implicate us and the Saudis.
Also any captured ISIS members would likely be wanted for war crimes in Syria. Last thing the CIA wants is their puppets talking to the Hague.

Yep. We know where they got some of their best weapons, at least, the part of ISIS that’s in Iraq. The hardware was US; “donated” by disappearing Iraqi government forces. Where they got their funding is another question. Like you, I doubt it will ever be answered.

Sixteen years later, the 29-bed center remains rare, if not unique, among juvenile prisons in two outstanding ways. Located next to a state mental hospital, it’s run by shrinks, not wardens, and its continuing existence is assured by uncommon peer-reviewed research, including the striking finding that it’s reduced new violent offenses by 50 percent. “They’ve attracted a lot of interest and excitement after decades of people saying that nothing can be done for this population,” says University of Wisconsin–Madison psychologist Joseph Newman, a leading expert in the field.

In 2001, Caldwell began collecting data on Mendota veterans. Three years later, he published his first findings in a report for the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. In that study, he followed 248 youth who’d been admitted to the program over a two-and-a-half-year period. He compared 101 of the boys who’d undergone a full course of treatment at Mendota to the 147 who’d been seen only briefly by the program’s therapists before being sent elsewhere, having been deemed less violent and unmanageable than the group that got treatment. Among other differences, Caldwell found that in the four years following their release, the boys who hadn’t received treatment at Mendota—the supposedly less problematic kids—had killed 16 people. The Mendota veterans hadn’t killed anyone.

I sent FDL an email asking if we could get the author of the “Psychopath Whisperer ” to talk here but I have not heard back yet I assume he is busy but maybe we could get someone from this program to give a talk at FDL even without a book?

The author of ” The Psychopath Whisperer ” did brain scans at prisons for years he says there is a difference between a normal and a psychopath brain.
Can you imagine the Pentagon, Congress, and just how many CEO’s would freak out if we started demanding brain scans before people assume a high office?
We do after all did drug tests on grocery store bag boys ( are we still doing that) as a condition of their keeping their jobs.
As brain scan tech gets better and cheaper it will be hard to avoid getting scanned even just for insurance reasons.
But what insurance company will insure a psychopath, a company run by a psychopath, etc? What voter wants a psychopath making any decisions about what to do with their tax money.

Ray, standing in the gallows with a rope pulled tight around his lair throat is given an opportunity to explain how osama “knocked down” WTC # 7, and his life would be spared,,, I have a big smile on my face because I KNOW I am pulling the lever…. SNAP goes the War Criminals neck!!!
next! said the PATRIOT.

TB, you make some good points but Iran decides who is PM in Iraq and this elevator maintanence man from London, al Abadi was placed in power by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Day to day decisions in the rump state of Iraq are now directed by Adm Ali Shamkhani an Arab Iranian who’s main focus is protecting Iran’s exposed border.

The Daily Star of Lebanon has some useful information but seems to me to be infected with wishful thinking about the Islamic State and their or anyone’s ability to resist it. The Saudis just dumped a billion dollars on the Lebanese Military to try and slow the coming conquest so a few greedy tribes in Anbar are unlikely to be decisive.

However, I think that ISIS can’t sustain a presence in Anbar province without the acquiescence of the Sunni tribes.

Al Queada couldn’t do it, and neither can ISIS.

I also have doubts about the degree of influence of Iran in all this. They certainly have some, but I don’t think it’s as definitive as you might think. The Iranian OK of Abadi might have been the tipping point for Maliki to resign, and in fact, it probably was, but his western background made him attractive to the US, as well. That’s what was surprising; that Sadr and Khamenei and the US and the Sunnis and the Kurds all got on the bandwagon.

Jesus, there must have been some incredible deals cut and promises made. The situation with the increased control of those northern fields that came with the Kurdish takeover of Kirkuk must have been one of the main bargaining chips. Like I said, I think the devil’s going to be in the details.

Most of the ME commenters I read hold no illusions about who makes policy and decides who governs what is left of Iraq, it’s Iran.

What is interesting to me is the contempt that Iran shows Iraq as is evident by their choices of leaders for them. Their first choice, Maliki and champion until last week is known as The Underwear Salesman and this new tool al-Abadi was an elevator engineer. Contrast them with the choice of the Islamic State of a scholar, cleric and poet as their leader.